The North Carolina Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Division is investigating the workplace death of a migrant farmworker in Wayne County earlier this month.
Juan José Ceballos died on July 6 and his death was reported on July 8, according to the state Labor Department.
A department spokesperson declined to disclose details into the nature of his death.
A GoFundMe page set up to support the Ceballos family, however, says he died from heat-related illness.
News of the fatality was first reported by Qué Pasa Media.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office did not respond to WUNC's request for a death investigation report.
The state has opened an inspection into his employer, Gracia and Sons LLC, a seasonal farm labor contractor. The OSH Division will have six months to issue any citations if the inspection finds that rules were broken.
In 2023, the same contractor settled out of court after being sued for human trafficking, wage theft and mistreatment of female migrant workers, several media outlets reported.
Ceballos was a 32-year-old father of two children from the municipality of Alfajayucan in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico, according to the GoFundMe set up to support his family.
His body was repatriated to Mexico on July 20 and funds are still being sought to cover funeral-related expenses.
The maximum temperature recorded the day of Ceballo's death was 101 degrees Fahrenheit in nearby Johnston County, according to the National Weather Service. It was one of only of a few days with a temperature high of at least 100 degrees.
Heat-related incidents are prevalent in North Carolina "when outdoor temperatures exceed 95 degrees with high relative humidity," according to an NCDOL heat stress information sheet.
Migrant workers who got word of Ceballo's death spoke with Leticia Zavala, a farmworker rights activist with the group It's Our Future.
"We have have been visiting Gracia workers ever since Juan José's passing," Zavala said.
Second recent farmworker death
On Sept. 5, 2023, migrant Mexican farmworker José Arturo González Mendoza, 29, died on a hot summer day from heat-related issues in Nash County.
Earlier in March, the state Labor Department fined Barnes Farming $187,500 as a result. They cited a “willful serious violation,” along with two other “serious” violations, fining the company the maximum penalty.
The day Gonzalez Mendoza of Guanajuato, Mexico, died last fall, the heat index was in the high 90s. He had started working at the farm in Spring Hope about 40 miles east of Raleigh less than two weeks before, his younger brother told WFAE.
